Life's What You Make It
by Sarah Torrez
Summary: Don't judge the title. This is a collection of one-shots that I write in between my other stories. It shows the boys and Mari growing up in Minnesota, and in LA.
1. Kindergarten Blues

**Author's Note: So, Make a Name is going way too fast...so I decided since I'm apparently a fast updater, why not take on two projects at once? I know a lot of people do a collection of one-shots, but I don't really care. I'm gonna join their club of awesomeness...^-^**

**Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own nothin' except Mari.**

"Come on, Logan, let's go play!" Five-year-old Mari Mitchell pulled her twin brother into the kindergarten classroom. Their mom, Lisa Mitchell, followed, laughing at her twins.

Mari nearly ran into the teacher, but Logan managed to pull her back in time. Then he hid behind her.

"Hi!" Mari said brightly.

"Hello," the teacher smiled. "I'm Miss Taylors."

"I'm Mari," the girl said. She pulled her brother out from behind her. "This is Logan."

"It's nice to meet you, Logan," Miss Taylors smiled at the boy. He peeked out from behind his hands, gave a quick smile, and ran behind his sister again.

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Mitchell said. "Logan's shy."

"It's fine," Miss Taylors assured her. "Most kids are their first day of school."

"Mari and Logan are probably going to hang out with each other a lot," Mrs. Mitchell said. "Hopefully Mari will get Logan out of his shell."

"I'm sure he'll be great," Miss Taylors told the mother.

"I have to go now," Mrs. Mitchell said, bending down and giving her children hugs.

"Bye, Mommy," Mari said, smiling at her mom.

"Mommy, don't go!" Logan sniffled.

"I'll be back soon, Logie," Mrs. Mitchell gave him another hug. She walked out the door. Logan started to cry. He probably would have had a break down if Mari hadn't wrapped her arms around him.

"It's okay, Logan, I'm still here," she said. "Let's go build something with the blocks!"

Logan wiped his face and nodded. The twins hurried over to the blocks. Miss Taylors smiled.

A few minutes later, a boy walked in. He smiled at Miss Taylors.

"James, wait up!" Tracy Diamond ran in after the boy.

"Is this your boy?" Miss Taylors asked.

"Yes, I'm sorry," Mrs. Diamond said. "This is James."

"Hi, James," Miss Taylors grinned at the boy, who was looking around in wonder.

"Hi," he said, not looking at her.

"I'm Miss Taylors," she said, finally catching the boy's attention. He gave her a full smile, taking her by surprise.

"James, I'm going to go now, okay?" Mrs. Diamond said. James nodded and gave her a hug.

"Bye, Mommy," he smiled at her, too.

"He seems used to this," Miss Taylors was amazed.

"He went to day care," Miss Diamond explained as her son ran off. Miss Taylors nodded. Mrs. Diamond left.

James ran around, greeting everyone. He stopped in front of the twins.

"That's cool," he said about their tower. "What is it?"

"A tower," Mari answered, smiling at him.

"Mari," Logan whined. He didn't want to make any friends. He was perfectly happy with just Mari.

"I'm James," he smiled.

"I'm Mari," she said. "This is my brother, Logan."

"Hi, Logan," James said. Logan turned away from him. James was hurt and ran away.

"Logan!" Mari glared at her brother. She would have said more, but the door opened and one of her friends from their old play group walked in.

"Kendall!" she squealed and ran over to the blond boy, tackling him with a hug.

"Hi, Mari," he said, laughing. Logan came over slowly. He hadn't really played with the others at the play group. Mari had tried to get him to socialize, but to no avail.

"Well, look who it is," Mrs. Kendra Knight laughed. "It's Mari and Logan."

"Hi," Logan said quietly. Kendall smiled at him as Mari got off of him.

"Where'd you go?" Mari asked Kendall. "My mom said you went somewhere."

"We went to New York," Kendall said. "For the summer. My grandma lives there."

"Where's New York?" Mari wondered. Kendall shrugged.

"A long car ride away from here," Kendall told her.

Mrs. Knight left a few minutes later. Kendall had only given her hug and said good-bye. Then he followed Mari and Logan over to their tower and started helping them build it. Logan began to warm up to Kendall.

The door opened not three minutes later and a mom carried a screaming boy in. She put him down and he laid down on the ground.

"I'm sorry," Nina Garcia said to Miss Taylors. Her little boy continued screaming. "He's not usually like this."

"He's probably just worried," Miss Taylors assured her.

"Carlos," Mrs. Garcia bent down. "_Calmate_, Carlos, please calm down."

The boy resorted to crying pitifully on the ground instead of screaming.

"I don't think I should leave him," Mrs. Garcia bit her lip.

"Carlos is his name, right?" Miss Taylors asked. Mrs. Garcia nodded. "I'm sure Carlos will have fun today."

Carlos shook his head and started crying louder. He wanted to go home.

"If you're sure," Mrs. Garcia nodded and bent down again.

"Carlos, mi hijo, I have to go now," she said. Carlos cried a little bit louder and wrapped his arms around his mom's arm. She managed to pull away, and, looking like she was going to cry herself, walked out of the room.

Mari had watched the entire thing. Carlos was still lying on the ground, crying. Abruptly, she stood up and walked over to the boy. Kendall and Logan looked at each other and followed. James watched from where he was doing a puzzle.

Mari bent over Carlos. He stopped crying in surprise, and looked at her. Instead of pulling the boy up, Mari laid down next to him. Carlos turned his head to look at her.

"Hi," Mari said.

"Hi," Carlos sniffed.

"I'm Mari," she said.

"I'm Carlos," he was slightly surprised. Mari turned her head to look at him.

"I like your helmet," Mari said, referring to Carlos' hockey helmet.

"I like your hat," Carlos said. Mari had a green ball cap on.

"Thanks," Mari smiled.

They lay next to each other for a while. Kendall came over and looked at them.

"Hi, Kendall," Mari said.

"Hi, Kendall," Carlos echoed. Kendall smiled.

"This is Carlos," Mari told him. "Carlos, that's Kendall."

Logan suddenly appeared next to Kendall.

"Oh, and there's my brother Logan," Mari smiled. "Logan, this is Carlos."

"Hi," Carlos sat up. Mari followed suit.

"Hi," Logan gave a small smile.

"Hey, let's go finish our tower!" Mari said, pulling Carlos to his feet and over to the tower. They continued building it all day.

Finally, it was time for parents to come. Mari, Logan, Kendall, and Carlos were sitting in a circle, putting a puzzle together as a group when Carlos' mom came in. She was surprised to see her boy laughing and smiling with the other three.

"Carlos calmed down not too long after you left," Miss Taylors said. "He made some friends pretty quickly, too."

"Wow," Mrs. Garcia smiled.

"_Mama_!" Carlos jumped up and ran to his mom. He hugged her immediately.

"_Hola_, Carlos," his mom said, hugging him back. Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Knight walked in together, talking to each other right then.

"Mommy!" Logan and Kendall screamed together, causing Mari to jump and then giggle. They ran over to their mothers and gave them hugs.

Carlos said good-bye to his friends and his mom took him out to the van.

"How was school, Carlos?" his mom asked.

"Good," Carlos grinned. He leaned back in his seat. He was happy. He had friends. He couldn't wait for the next day of school.

**Author's Note: Yup. Not friends with James yet. Silly Carlos, Etc...**


	2. Loner

**Author's Note: Hola! I'm bored and hyper from candy that i got at my church party last night. I want to go outside and run around. But I can't. So, here you go!**

James sighed. It was the fifth week of kindergarten and he still had no friends. He was pretending that he was doing it on purpose, and that he didn't want any friends.

But that wasn't the truth. He really wanted someone he could play with.

"James seems to be a loner," Miss Taylors had told his mother. His mom had looked sad until she noticed James watching them. Then she smiled. But James hadn't been fooled. He knew his mom was upset that he didn't have any friends.

James had tried really hard the first day. But when that Logan kid had turned away from him, James had been discouraged and gone off and played on his own.

They went outside for recess. James looked around for someone he could hopefully play with. There wasn't anyone who looked his way.

Suddenly, he saw Logan. The kid was alone, with none of his usual friends with him. Not even his twin. James wondered where Mari could have gone. She stuck with Logan through everything.

James spaced off and sat down on a bench. When he looked back at Logan, he saw that four second-graders had cornered him against the fence. Logan was crying. James hurried over.

"Hey!" he yelled. The second-graders turned to him.

"Oh, look, it's another kindergartener," one of them smirked. His name was Peter Newman, and he was one of the nastiest kids in the school.

"What's he gonna do?" another one, a girl, sneered and started laughing at her joke. Peter turned to Logan and kicked him in the stomach. Logan started gasping.

"Don't touch him!" James yelled and ran forward. He punched Peter in the face. It was a surprisingly hard punch for a kindergartener.

James managed to get around the second-graders and stood in front of Logan. Peter held his eye, which was probably going to turn black. He spotted Mari, Carlos, and Kendall running over toward them. As he was momentarily distracted, Peter swung a fist and it connected with James' jaw. He was thrown backwards.

"James!" Logan screamed. He knew that James had been trying to protect him, no matter how much it failed. He was sorry that he hadn't tried to be friends with James now.

Peter came toward Logan. James tried to sit up, but fell back against the fence. His head hurt. He made it to a standing position and went forward to help Logan again, but his ankle twisted and he fell back down. He cried out.

Peter brought his fist back. Logan tried to scoot backwards, but hit the fence.

"Don't touch my brother!" Mari yelled from behind Peter. The second-grader was distracted and turned toward her, just in time to be kicked in the knee really hard. Peter hopped around and then fell. Kendall stood over the second-grader.

"Don't touch Logan again," Kendall said in a low voice. Peter began crying.

Mari hurried over to her brother, then noticed James on the ground next to Logan.

"Are you guys okay?" Mari asked. Logan nodded. James shrugged.

"Thanks, James," Logan smiled at James as three different teachers ran over to them. Peter was still crying on the ground. James couldn't get up off of the fence. His ankle hurt really badly.

"James, your ankle!" Carlos' eyes widened at the swollen ankle. Kendall turned and then went and pulled one of the teachers to James.

James leaned on Kendall and Carlos to get to the nurse's office. Mari was comforting her brother, but she kept giving James grateful and encouraging smiles. When the nurse was done checking him, and told him his ankle was only sprained (which confused him. Logan explained that it meant it wasn't broken), Mari came up to him.

"Thanks for helping my brother," she gave him a hug.

"Yeah, thanks," Logan smiled at James.

"You're cool," Kendall grinned. Carlos gave James a high-five.

James ended up having to stay home for a few days until his ankle got better. When he went back to school, his friends greeted him like they'd been best friends for years. James played with them the entire day, happy to have friends.

**Author's Note: I really gotta work on my endings...*sigh* I'll get there. Anyway, if you want to submit a plot, be my guest. I need some inspiration. And you guys are really awesome. So, there we go. Yay!**


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